She was worried about what you were getting into.’Nin took my hand. ‘I saw Yut arrive and follow you, and I thought he would recognise you. Then I...heard shouting, then he came back fast. He looked mad. I so glad you OK.’‘Thanks, NIn, but I'm OK. Aki got rid of Yut.’‘Aki? Who the fuck is Aki?’ Shane looked from me to Nin, who shrugged.‘I’ll tell all when we get back to the hotel.’ I needed to steady my nerves first.It didn't take long to get back and as soon as we were in the room I poured. Her seeming innocence clashed with her driven sluttiness, but it wasn’t the problem. I couldn’t imagine myself with a girl I liked.Maybe I was broken. Years of short unsatisfying girlfriends had changed my expectations of any connection I had at all. I fell in love and couldn’t trust myself once the brain chemicals burned off. I had always had the ability to walk away. That saved me, I figured, more than a couple times. I just hadn’t connected outside of the sex before.Ellie was giving me that. Sexual-harassment regulations were nothing like what they are today, so these dirty old men, being powerful in the college, did this with impunity. They seemed to share information on which women would tolerate this behavior and which would not. They would freely avail themselves of female staff members who were tolerant, and I do mean "tolerant." A woman did not have to encourage or enjoy these types of advances, if she simply tolerated it, she was subjected to it. There were three women on. But the countryside that was my home was could only be visited briefly. Vampires by necessity are creatures of the cities of man. We are solitary and secretive. We do not band together, lest we be noticed. We glide through the shadows. Our greatest safety lies in that we are a superstition, that we do not exist. I had, along with all of Ireland, fought and been defeated, indeed crushed, by Cromwell in 1649 and 1650. Great cruelties incite horrible vengeance. I still strive to forget not only.